


Tout va bien

by FixaIdea



Category: Maurice (1987), Maurice - E. M. Forster
Genre: A Happy Ending Was Imperative, Fluff, I'm gonna make it a thing, M/M, Post-Canon, is Language Fluff a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 13:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18779218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FixaIdea/pseuds/FixaIdea
Summary: Their new life poses some challenges - some expected, some less so - but they are coping.





	Tout va bien

’Oh, leave it off! Ol’ girl thought you was dead, what did you expect?’

Maurice blinked awake and poked his head out from under the covers. Besides him, Alec was frowning heavily at the book in his hands.

’Dantes being a twat again?’

‘So he is.’

Alec continued to glare at the page as Maurice turned away, trying his best to block out the flickering light of the oil lamp on the night stand. Inconvenient or not, he was not going to tell him to put the book down.

Learning French on the go, without any formal lessons was a painful challenge for the both of them, though admittedly easier for Maurice, who already knew Latin. Speech was the easiest to pick up – some pantomime and a little goodwill was enough to get their meaning across in the beginning, and help bridge any holes in their knowledge later on. Reading proved doable too, but writing was a nightmare. Alec complained he did not believe he’ll ever be able to put down a completely correct sentence, though he took solace in the fact that Maurice – and frankly, some locals – felt the same way.

It had been years – the world has turned and burned around them, life beat them down and picked them up, and finally set them down in a small seaside town near Marseille. It took a lot of hard work, but they were still here, still free, and if not exactly well off, but at least reasonably secure. They even had some free time now!

By now Alec could deal with reading the local newspaper without difficulty and Maurice noticed he was eyeing the library, as if sizing it up for a challenge. One day this staring contest ended with a curt little nod and Alec disappearing inside. He returned with a fat book and a promise to himself that he would get through it, all of it, from cover to cover. In French. Some of it he read out loud, sometimes he let Maurice (who could also use the practice) read it for him. Together they worked through it with the same dogged determination they approached everything in life.

It was a first – many followed.

Maurice was jolted out of his thoughts by a soft flopping sound. Gingerly he turned around and picked The Count of Monte Cristo off of Alec’s face, bookmarked it carefully and turned off the lamp. He pressed a small kiss at his forehead and tucked the covers under his chin. Whatever was happening to Dantes could wait until tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> (I know indoors electric lighting was already well in use for the upper and middle class at least, the backgrounf headcanon here is that they bought a very old cottage they have to gradually renovate and bring up to modern standards. Besides I'm not 100% sure if my own great-grandparents had electric lighting...)


End file.
